


You

by SilverGoddess666



Series: Harmonies [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, but i promise it still has a nice ending, i'm wEAK for these two losers, klance, little more angtsy this time around
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-07
Updated: 2017-03-07
Packaged: 2018-09-30 09:57:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10160660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverGoddess666/pseuds/SilverGoddess666
Summary: Keith had a temper, this wasn't news. His mouth ran too fast for his brain to catch up, so what happens when it gets directed at Lance?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I dunno. I know I preached in the other two that there two don't get enough fluff, but I'm also a slut for angst so have this bullshit. It's like 2:30 in the morning and this is completely unedited(and will likely remain that way since I'm lazy), so apologies for any mistakes.
> 
> The song used is You by The Pretty Reckless

Keith blinked. One hand shot forward. “Wait, Lance, I-“

“Just…don’t.” Blue eyes shimmered with tears the Blue Paladin refused to let fall.

Keith’s hand remained in the air as he watched Lance turn on one heel and walk away, soft footfalls echoing around the room.

It had been a pretty straightforward mission. A distress beacon had gone off, it hadn’t even had anything to do with the Galra, just a village that was being swarmed with creatures from another planet looking to drain it’s resources.

But then, Lance had to go and jump in front of laser fire, bravado in voice only wavering when a stray hit beam had met it’s mark and downed the Blue Lion. The following silence had terrified Keith, and once Lance woke up, he lashed out at him with far more anger than he ever meant to.

_“What the hell were you thinking?! You nearly got yourself killed!”_

_“Uh, last I checked, that’s kinda in the job description! What was I supposed to do, stand by and watch while you got blasted to bits?”_

_“No, you pay attention to your battles and stop getting in the middle of mine! I can handle myself!”_

_“Yeah, I’ve heard that before!”_

_“Lance, I can take care of myself! I don’t need_ you _to protect me, damnit!”_

_Lance’s eyes widened and his anger faltered. “So, you don’t need_ me _, huh?”_

Keith fucked up.

He knew it was inevitable. Everyone knew he was a hothead, and his mouth would run faster than his brain when it happened, but it had never screwed him over this badly before.

Their relationship was fledgling at best, but if there was anyone Keith needed, it was Lance. That voice the cracked stupid jokes when no one wanted them that made him fight to hide a smile. That tan skin he so meticulously maintained that would practically glow in the light. That bubbling laughter that he heard often, but it was never enough. That smile that could turn his insides to absolute goo when aimed at him. Keith _needed_ Lance, more than he ever could have thought, and hadn’t know it until he did.

He had to fix this. Soon.

(*)

Lance didn’t show up for dinner that night, not that Keith really expected him to. He could barely eat anything, his chest tight and stomach turning with every little scrape of goo he forced into his mouth. The silence was overbearing and it was awkward.

“Where’s Lance?” Hunk finally asked, and all eye turned to Keith. His face burned and the guilt couldn’t be more obvious if it was written across his forehead in permanent marker.

“I…don’t know.” He finally murmured. His eyes didn’t more from the barely touched plate in front of his, most of his face hidden by the thick fringe of messy black hair.

“Keith, what happened?” Shiro asked. He saw right through the younger teen’s soft voice and withdrawn figure.

“I messed up.” His voice was barely a whisper.

There was another beat of silence.

“Then I hope you can resolve it.” Shiro said gently, then dropped it. He knew the last thing Keith wanted or needed was for them to drag everything onto the table, so he held his tongue.

There was another few minutes of the unsettling silence before Keith shoved his chair back and left the room, strides long and fast. He was never known for his patience, and this wasn’t the kind of thing you let sit and hope it blew over. The longer he waited, the worse it would get.

The first place he tried was Lance’s room. Lance had given him the code not long after Keith started stopping by at night to listen to him play, saying he might as well just come in so he didn’t wake anyone else up by knocking. After all, it wasn’t like anyone else knew it, so the only person coming in could be Keith.

It was empty. Keith figured it wouldn’t be that easy.

Next, he tried the observation deck, but that was empty as well. This struck Keith as a bit odd, since that was usually where Lance went for a bit of space from the others, but he guessed it would also be the first place they would look. If he didn’t want to be found, it made sense he wouldn’t go there.

He tried the training deck as well, but he hadn’t expected anything from that. But Keith thought checking in unlikely places might get him somewhere.

He headed for Blue’s hangar next, recalling how Lance would sometimes withdraw to her cabin, playing music he had on his phone and “talking” with the Lion. He arguably had the closest bond with his Lion of any of them, given both of their natures, but when he got there, Blue’s eyes were dim and it was silent.

“Goddamnit, Lance, where are you?” he hissed under his breath.

Then, an idea struck him. He wasn’t sure how he didn’t think of it sooner, but his fast paced walk became a run in seconds.

After they had “officially” gotten together, each had taken to sleeping in the other’s room on many nights. They were still testing the waters with it, but there was no denying the comfort each took with having the other so close. They would often sleep touching in some, small way. Fingers interlaced, ankles twined together. It wasn’t the mushy crap you found in cheap romance novels where they’d wake up cuddled together, but neither complained. Lance quickly found that Keith was like a human furnace, and Keith discovered Lance kept him from overheating in the middle of the night, the Blue Paladin never bothered by the chill in the first place but welcomed Keith’s warmth. It worked in perfect sync for them.

Keith stopped outside his own room, chest heaving as he tried to stifle the noise of his pants. Leaning forward, he rested his forehead against the door, making no attempt to open it. He could hear the soft strums from just the other side of the door.

It was tuneless at first, but a more distinct melody picked up after a moment.

_“You don’t want me, no_

_You don’t need me”_

Ice ran through Keith’s vein’s. Lance’s quiet voice wasn’t smooth and melodic like it usually was, now sounding husky and thick.

_“Like I want you, oh_

_Like I need you”_

Keith sank to his knees, pressing his forehead to the cold metal. The edge of the door blurred in his vision as he picked up the next line.

_“But I, want you in my life”_

The sound of Lance’s voice and the strumming cut off almost immediately, but Keith continued anyways.

_“And I, need you in my life…”_

(*)

Darkness enveloped him, but Lance had long past gotten to the point he no longer needed to see the neck of the septichord to play it. It had become almost no different than a regular guitar to him, having been affectionately dubbed Selena Two after his old one back on Earth. Pidge had poked fun at the name, but she was one of his favorite Hispanic musicians and couldn’t be bothered to care.

Keith’s words ran on a constant loop through his mind for hours.

_I don’t need_ you _to protect me._

The words had come out harsh and cold, cutting Lance to the core in an instant. Of course Keith didn’t need him, no one on the team really did. All he did was make stupid jokes and run his mouth to the point he should give them punch cards for every time he told them to shut up. More than ten in one day and you get a prize.

Lance gave a humorless laugh. He’d be out of prizes in less than a week.

He needed them, but they didn’t need him. _Sharpshooter._ What a joke.

He gently touched the welt near his hairline. No one had even bothered to try to find him. Granted, the injury was literally nothing compared to what any of them had sustained before and would probably heal in a few days without the pod, but that fact alone didn’t help his current disposition any. Of course they didn’t look for him, he wasn’t really all that important, was he? They needed him a form Voltron, sure, but he didn’t actually contribute anything to the team that someone else couldn’t.

His hands had shifted to a song with barely a thought.

_“You don’t want me, no_

_You don’t need me”_

Keith had never needed anyone. If anyone, it would be Shiro. Their leader was like the brother he never had, the closest thing to actual family Keith knew.

_“Like I want you, oh_

_Like I need you”_

Lance needed him though. Lance needed that short temper to quell his wild mind, that voice of reason for his ridiculous ideas.

He opened his mouth for the next verse, but another was there instead.

_“But I, want you in my life_

_And I, need you in my life”_

His hands stilled, but Keith kept going.

_“You can’t feel me, no_

_Like I feel you”_

He could hear the shake in Keith’s voice.

_“I can’t have you, no_

_Like you have me”_

His voice faltered a bit, and Lance couldn’t have stopped the tears dripping from his eyes if he tried.

“Lance…please. Open the door.”

One hand moved to cover his mouth and Lance’s shoulders began to shake, eyes squeezing shut as more trails of salt made their way down his cheeks.

“Lance, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. Please, let me in.”

Lance let out a soft, shuddering breath before shakily pulling himself to his feet. Leaning the septichord by the door, he hesitated a moment before pressing the button by the door, letting it slid aside with a soft pneumatic hiss.

Keith knelt on the ground, arms raised from leaning against the door. His watery gray eyes were wide in shock, not having expected Lance to actually open it. Grabbing onto the frame, he stood as well, gaze back on the ground as he refused to meet Lance’s eyes, afraid of the hurt he knew was there.

Lance wordlessly stepped to the side, and for the first time, Keith felt almost unwelcome in his own room, as though he sought permission to enter and was only barely given in willingly.

The door closed behind him and a second later, the soft glow of the night time lights came on, set much dimmer. Not long after their arrival, Pidge and Coran had synced up the Castle to run on a rough estimate of Earth time to keep track of the days a bit better, including dimming the lights during the “night”.

“I’m sorry.” He finally managed.

“You already said that.” Lance replied, his voice painfully monotone.

“But I mean it. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“No, you shouldn’t have.” Keith finally looked up at Lance, and was met with every bit of the hurt he’d expected. He was pretty sure a mountain sitting on his chest wouldn’t hurt as much as the pained look in those blue eyes did. There was still a nasty bruise on his temple and he had a slight concussion, but Lance had vanished before anyone could get him into a healing pod and the injury wasn’t nearly dire enough for anyone to feel the need to hunt him down over it. Keith re

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Then, please, enlighten me to what you really meant.”

The last shred of Keith’s dignity crumbled, and tears began to flow freely down his face like they hadn’t since he was nine.

“I never wanted you to think I didn’t want you, that I didn’t need you. I don’t want you protecting me, I don’t want you getting hurt because you were protecting me.” The words began to tumble out faster and faster and Keith didn’t even try to stop the repetitive ramblings. “I don’t want you putting yourself in the line of fire like that, for me or anyone else. I know it’s selfish to ask, but I don’t want you getting hurt, especially not for me, because-“

Keith’s words were cut off by Lance’s lips pressing against his. Keith flinched at the sudden contact, but then wrapped his arms around him, pulling the Cuban teen close and clinging tightly to him. Lance’s arms draped around his shoulders, far more loosely than Keith’s grip, but Keith didn’t care.

“Lance, I’m so, so sorry.”

“I’m gonna make you start putting a quarter in a jar for every time you apologize if you keep this up.” Lance said, and there was that soft smile that turned Keith’s insides to goo.

“I lived in a shack in the desert for seven months, it would be a very empty jar.” Keith replied, closing his eyes when Lance’s thumbs moved to wipe the tears from his face.

“I guess I’m sorry for freaking out like that. I should have known better.”

He probably should have, but Keith had come to learn that Lance could be fragile. That it didn’t take a whole lot for Lance to doubt his place on the team, doubt his worth to the others. That when Keith used to jokingly refer to the cargo pilot thing, it cut deeper than he ever would have thought. He’d learned the hard way that it wouldn’t take that much to send Lance packing.

Lance’s stomach let out a soft growl and both of them laughed.

“Maybe let’s go see if there’s any leftovers from dinner?” Keith suggested.

“Yeah, that’s doesn’t sound too bad.”

Lance drew back, but before he got far, Keith yanked him back into a fierce hug. “Lance, you’re worth so much to me. Don’t every let anything make you think you aren’t.” he whispered, and this time, Lance’s hands curled into his jacket just as tightly as his own.

“I promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah, this series isn't dead(like my old stories on FF.net are starting to be, I haven't updated there since I started posting these oneshots here, OOPS). To keep track of them, you may want to follow the series as a whole. They do take place (relatively) chronologically, and I'll mention it if it doesn't, and you don't necessarily have to read them all to make sense of each individual one. That said, if you haven't read the others, the only thing I mentioned that wouldn't make sense in the septichord. This is what I call the alien equivalent of a guitar and he gets this in the first installment of this series, which explains a little on it(which the first one is still my favorite oneshot of this small series).
> 
> Thanks for reading and stay tuned for future oneshots!
> 
> ***ALSO, please feel free to leave suggestions for songs! I am a music hound and always look for new music, so fire away! Keep in mind what it would sound like as an acoustic, given that's what I'm working with for Lance, but otherwise, I'd love to hear your suggestions!


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